No answer to ‘Animal Assad’: Syrian leader tells RT he does not have insulting nickname for Trump

US President Donald Trump infamously called his Syrian counterpart ‘animal Assad’ in one of his tweets. When asked whether he has a nickname for Trump, Assad told RT he does not use such language.

“This is not my language, so, I cannot use similar language. This is his language. It represents him,” Bashar Assad said in an exclusive interview with RT, which will be shown in full on Thursday at 11:30am GMT.

“I think there is a very known principle, that what you say is what you are. So, he wanted to represent what he is, and that’s normal,” he added.

He said Trump’s invention of an insulting nickname didn’t really matter for what happens in Syria.

“The only thing that moves you is what people that you trust, people who are level-headed, people who are thoughtful, people who are moral, ethical, that's what should move anything inside you, whether positive or negative. Somebody like Trump will move nothing for me,” he said.

Speaking to RT’s Murad Gazdiev, Assad explained his government’s position on the ongoing armed conflict in Syria, including allowing militant forces safe passage to Idlib, the escalating tension with Israel and the continued presence of US troops in the north.